I know plenty of cyclists who I steer right away from in a bunch too. I am a cycling guide in the summer months... I ride at the front or at the back... Very rarely in the middle . Just because someone calls themselves a cyclist doesn't mean a thing when it comes to skills.

jcjordan wrote:From my experience it tends to come from their apparent lack of bunch skills and knowledge of etiquette.

I am not saw all, or even the majority, but it is something that gets brought up a lot and have seen some really bad example which has a tendency to reinforce the stereotype.

But if that was the reason then every newby to group riding would also be hated. In expect that instead they are welcomed and maybe even mentored.

I stress that I am not in a position to even be aware of any such cross-cultural divide. However if I accept the premise of the thread then I would ask "do they show an arrogance or superiority or know-it-all attitude to mere cyclists?"

If so then I would further ask "Are we taring a whole class of athletes on the exception".

And after all of that I would then suggest that, to a lot of non-bicyclists, "cyclists exhibit an arrogance or superiority to mere motorists and other users".

And I would further suggest to those bicycle-hating smoke box drivers that they are tarring all cyclists on the exception."

IN ESSENCE I hope that cyclists are better than so many of our critics.Before I get flamed for being totally off the track - I repeat, I am not aware of any such cross-cultural divide. But if it exists I hope we are not being as unreasonable and as illogical as are too many motorists. Devils advocate.

I'm a cyclist and a triathlete (back of the pack). Not that i have been training much recently. However, when I do train, I don't ride in bunches much. Too little time and my organisational skills are too poor, so out I go, by myself. It's relaxing. Bunch riding is a bit meh. As for attitude, well, I guess everyone's gotta look down on someone. Steel vs carbon, campag vs shimano, Chinese vs Italian, mountain vs road, commuter vs sport, track vs road, tandem vs unicycle, electric vs HPV, fully-fared recumbent vs non-fared semi-recumbent trike. People in glass houses.

nescius wrote:In general they have poor bike handling skills which makes them dangerous. They are also different to cyclists, they have strange bikes with odd saddles, they don't have sleeves on their jerseys and they never shut up about nutrition.

Last year at the Triathlon age group world championships the competitors were advised by team officials that there were corners on the course and that when going through the corner they should be ready to "dump it" just in case they couldn't get around it. I was there watching my girlfriend and some friends race, luckily they aren't typical triathletes so they didn't have to hurl themselves to the ground.

(first 5 seconds of this video seems to be broken but it plays normally after that)

For cyclists they seem to have a bit of trouble mounting up.......and that shoe cruelty has to be seen to be believed.

I did another ride on the weekend with 6 tri athletes, the main guy had a bike issue half way up Balcombe Rd hill, which I stopped to help him fix it as I had tools on me, the others were instructed to keep going. After taking a few minutes to fix he bike we took off after them, we finished the hill side by side and probably the quickest I have gone up it, from there he told me to jump on his wheel. For 21 klms he lead me at an avg of 40 kmh according to my Garmin data, until the others were in close proximity, then he lifted it to 45 klms to pass them.I'm not a great cyclist and i know there are probably quite a few of you out there that can do that, but I was impressed at his speed and endurance and considering it was not a short ride, in fact the ride for a few of them was 5 hrs and they covered 158 klms and then they did a 18 klm run

Some more hot tips, inspired by watching the transition at the Melbourne Ironman;1. Practice mounting your bike so you don't steer it into the fence as you take off. 2. Check out the transition area and the first 50m of the cycle course before the start... Is it uphill, level of downhill? Then adjust your bike gearing before leaving it in the transition area. (Starting in your hardest gear is hard uphill!)3. Don't try leaving your shoes connected to the pedals when you haven't tried it beforehand.

jacks1071 wrote:Here is a hot tip, take 4 seconds in the transition to put your shoes on.

my first tri it was really muddy in transition, i saw one poor guy who couldnt get his speedplays to clip in because they were so full of mud. he had used both his bottles of sport drink to clean them out and there was no fluid on course. i wonder if he finished?

point is, leaving shoes on the bike is a good option if you are competent enough to jump on. remarkably most people arent..

Haha true, have seen a good mass pile up when one person tried to mount, slipped and took out 3 others.

If you can do it though it saves heaps of time in a sprint/oly distance which is where I pass most people after my terrible swims. Not such a big deal in an ironman unless you're fighting for a podium. Probably worth putting socks on to counter blisters etc. I would anyway.